A Parrot's Cage?

You know, I’ve been thinking lately. I know, not necessarily my strong point recently, but hear me out. As a Blogger, I regularly wreck my head about the next topic to write about. I mean, it has to be something that I care about, as well as something that I know about, so that anything I do end up coming up with actually makes sense. Needless to say, this takes quite a bit of work, possibly too much if you’re having to juggle a full-time job, and aren’t in the best frame of mind, such as is the case with yours truly at the moment. Therefore, it is all the more satisfying when you’re finally done, have everything ready to go, and you hit the „Publish“ button of whatever blogging platform you choose. However, sometimes I wonder if all this effort is worth it anymore.

When I scroll through my timelines on various social media platforms, I notice that I tend to be one of the few people that are actually publishing their own content. Most people just contend with tagging their „friend“ in some inane drivel, sending around sharepics, memes, recipes, and weird political links that border on conspiracy theories, often without ANY comment of their own. This is especially prevalent among my German acquaintances. Okay, there’s not much to comment on recipes, I get that, and in fact, I often bookmark or copy those myself, but the other stuff? Seriously? Granted, not everyone has a penchant for writing, I get that. Still, I’m probably one of the few relics who personally knows 99% of my Facebook Friends, and I know that these people are on the whole intelligent, articulate, and independent-thinking. However, only a very small majority actually post any stuff that could be considered „original“. And mind you, I’m using that term very broadly, for me, „original“ content is simply something they thought of themselves, regardless of whether that’s a comment, a picture, or something similar. 

Why is that? Why is it that intelligent people are incapable, or unwilling, to actually articulate independent thoughts? Is it a lack of inspiration? Are they so caught up in their lives that they cannot see anything to the left or right of them? Do they feel that they’re not good enough to do so? If that is the case, where is that coming from? Or is it that producing actual content would simply be too much work? I can partially believe that last part, given that I’m still working on the third installment of my four part Providence travelogue, and have all but given up on my YouTube ambitions at this point, but still, it doesn’t take that much effort to simply take a picture of something you find interesting or amusing, upload it, and comment it. And that type of stuff is all I ask for. I don’t ask for lengthy monologues, or sweeping article series. I don’t expect gallery level photographs. Hell, I don’t even ask for anything witty. But would it really be too much to ask for to put some effort into what you’re posting on social media?

Now, mind you, I don’t know the answers to these questions, so I won’t go into some long-winded diatribe about the pseudo-psychological reasonings behind this apparent dissonance between what social media are supposed to be about and what it actually is about. On the contrary. I’m looking for your input here. What’s your take on this? What is it that I’m missing? Let me know in the comment section below. It’s moderated, chiefly to weed out spam and similar stuff, but anything that is even remotely related to this topic will get approved and published. So go ahead, and don’t hold back!